A Face In The Dark
by Child of the Muse
Summary: "I thought about how there are two types of secrets: the kind you want to keep in, and the kind you don't dare to let out." ― Ally Carter Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition.


**A/N I hope you guys like :) I had to cut a lot of the darker more macabre parts out to make this T rated. But I still very much enjoyed writing it and will be writing the M rated version very soon. Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. To those who follow, the new chapter of solar return will be up today. (It's 11/16 where I'm at.)**

Our parents often say it's hard to tell us apart, so they punish whoever comes forward. I find it funny that our parents think we're so "truthful". But the truth is, I've been lying to everyone I've ever known.

Parvati has always taken the punishments for me when I got into trouble, which was rare. And I've always taken her punishments, which were more often. I was very rule conscious, where as she had no lines in the sand at all. But that was fine with me. Because that made her who she was. And taking her punishments was worth it because I couldn't _stand_ to see her cry.

When I was young, I used to cry when I would be whipped with the cane on my backside. I would go into the room with tears in my eyes and with one look, Parvati would look at me and burst into tears, saying how sorry she was. It made me feel so bad that my pain caused her pain. So I had one of my close friends repeatedly beat my backside with a cane.

She thought it was the weirdest request ever, but I told her that if I could build up a tolerance to the cane striking, I could take the cane more easily for Parvati and not cry.

She agreed and it was from that day forward that I was beaten ten times. The next week, twenty and so on until I could take a hundred strikes from the cane and not bat an eye.

That was when I began to take both of our punishments, both mine and hers. I would always step forward, even when I was the one in trouble.

When my sister found out about that, she was so angry to me she didn't speak to me for weeks. And that just about killed me.

She said that it was the only thing she could do for me, thing only gift she could give me. And even when I explained to her about what I'd done, she still refused to let me take the cane, purely on principal. But she did kiss me on the cheek ever so softly and wrap me in her arms to thank me for being so sweet. It was than that I promised to never let her go. Ever.

Me and Parvati would often sleep in the same bed at night, talking about things only twins would understand. We would fall asleep in each others arms, do each others hair, and long after we should have stopped matching clothes, we still couldn't seem to stop wanting to coordinate everything together. Neither of us could bear to be apart from the other.

That was the main reason why, even though I was a Ravenclaw, I spent all time up in Gryffindor tower showering, talking, playing, sleeping, and doing makeovers on my twin.

But even with all the things I told her, sometimes, there are secrets that no one else should know. Not even the person who knows everything about you. And so I never said a word about it, not even to my twin. Especially not to my twin. And I had plenty of chances to tell her, seeing as I spent every waking moment with her...besides the moments when I was writing in my diary.

Ravenclaw was a bit different than Gryffindor tower.

Behind a statue of Lady Ravenclaw was the entrance to the dormitories, but for those few in Ravenclaw that truly showed intelligence and truly rolled to the beat of their own drum, there were given a special room in the tower. All you had to do was pull down a book and the shelves would part, revealing a secret door.

With a small drop of blood, you were allowed into the more private rooms.

This was why no other Ravenclaw could get in, and this was where my room was...where I kept my diary.

I loved my room. Truly and deeply, I did. It was mostly bare but for my most sacred treasures...the photo album I kept of my family and twin, my most treasured poems, and my diary, the thing I had always tried most desperately to hide.

I'd been keeping it since I was very young. And I had so many secrets in there of desires, wants, needs, and things that no one else could ever know...at least, not until I could justifiably understand them myself.

When I would leave, I would close the door not only on my secret life, but my secret heart as well and I would put the mask back on. But somehow, Parvati always knew. She always knew there was something I was keeping from her.

So when I got back from my last class and found Parvati in my private rooms, reading the latest entry I'd written, my palms began to sweat.

"How did you get in here?"

"We're twins. I tricked the door into thinking it was your blood when I implanted a copied magical image of my face into it. But there's a more important question. Padma, I thought we didn't keep anything from each other?"

"We don't."

"Nonsense. There are plenty of things you haven't told me. Like for instance, it says here-"

I cringed. "Look, you know you shouldn't be in here."

She looked hurt. "You've never locked me out of your life before."

"I've been locking you out of my life for years Parvati. I couldn't...I didn't know how to..."

And than I did something that I hadn't done in years. I broke down. I cried. And for the first time in a very long time, my twin came over and held me as my mask shattered in her arms. For the longest time, she just let me cry it all out and rubbed her hand soothingly along my back in that familiar gentle rythm, the same that I had used with her on the rare occasions that something would go wrong. When I quieted down, she spoke.

"I thought about something while I was in here."

"Please Parvati, just don't."

"No, just hear me out. K? Ok, I thought about how there are two types of secrets: the kind you want to keep in, and the kind you don't dare to let out. Well, you've never told anyone. And neither will I. We'll keep this secret together and we won't tell a soul. I'll let you tell when your ready to."

I couldn't believe it...did she really mean?

"You promise?"

"I swear it."

We laughed and she wiped the tears from my eyes. "So we'll spend the night in your room tonight and have a scary movie marathon."

"I hate scary movies."

She smiled. "I know. But you don't ever have to worry again twin. I will always protect you, even from yourself."

And I knew she would. After all, she had been keeping that promise long before it was ever made.


End file.
